Paleoethnobotany (Other Keyword)
276-300 (461 Records)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "New Avenues in the Study of Plant Remains from Historical Sites" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Microbotanical analysis has been historically underutilized at colonial-era sites in New England. This talk will discuss the use of pollen and phytolith at three historic sites in coastal Massachusetts: Brewster Gardens and Burial Hill Plymouth; the Doane Family Homestead in Eastham; and Ben Luce Pond on...
New Evidence Concerning the Chronology and Paleoethnobotany of Salts Cave, Kentucky (1987)
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A New Hypothetical Framework of Understanding the Evolution of Agriculture in the Lower Yangzi Region (2018)
Although a number of studies in recent years have contributed fresh knowledge to our understanding of the origins and development of agriculture in the Lower Yangzi, updated data have made this issue even more complicated. The empirical evidence shows very little information about any hunter-gatherers who might have lived in this area and indicates that, 10,000 years ago, humans first appeared here as successful resource managers or niche constructors. The human ecosystem characterized by...
New Insights from Old Wood: A Case Study from the Southeastern United States (2018)
In the southeastern United States, as well as in North America more broadly, archaeological wood charcoal continues to be an underutilized data source. In this paper, I review previous North American studies and models of prehistoric fuelwood collection. I use these past studies to highlight how wood charcoal data might contribute new insights on the archaeological record. I also present findings from a recent analysis of wood charcoal from three sites in the North Carolina Piedmont. This new...
New Insights into the Consumption of Cultigens for "Archaic" Age Populations in Cuba: The Archaeological Site of Playa el Mango, Rio Cauto, Granma (2018)
The use of cultigens and wild plants by pre-historic populations has been well established for many regions of the circum-Caribbean and Greater Antilles. However, in the case of Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean, the evidence is scarce. In this paper, we examine the population of Playa El Mango (Cauto Region, Eastern Cuba), traditionally understood by Cuban archaeologists as "fisher-gatherers", to examine subsistence practices using a combination of starch evidence from dental calculus,...
New Investigations at Russell Cave, Alabama (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Russell Cave (1Ja181), located in Jackson County, Alabama, contains one of the longest prehistoric occupational sequences known in the southeastern U.S., spanning approximately 9,000 years. Excavations were conducted by the Chattanooga Chapter of the Tennessee Archaeological Society (1953-1955) the Smithsonian Institute in conjunction with the National...
New Life for Old Samples: Investigating the Paleoethnobotanical Record from Tijeras Canyon (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and Public Education at Tijeras Pueblo, New Mexico" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. University of New Mexico field school excavations carried out at Tijeras Pueblo in the Sandia Mountains by Jim Judge and Linda Cordell from 1971 to 1976 left a legacy of more than than 2,000 botanical samples, consisting of maize, flotation samples, wood samples, and macrobotanical specimens. Apart from a...
New Methods for the Identification of Prehistoric Resins in the Southwest and Great Basin, USA: Proof of Concept (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Plant Exudates and Other Binders, Adhesives, and Coatings in the Americas" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The use of various organic resins as mastics and sealants in prehistoric North America is well documented in the archaeological and ethnographic literature. While the utilization of the creosote lac resin by people in western North America is known, resinous materials discovered in archaeological contexts are most...
New Mexican Cuisine as Ethnogenesis (2018)
Food is a major vehicle through which cultural identity is both formed and expressed. While foodstuffs are often consumed based on cultural practices, they are also utilized based on availability. The colonial situation in New Mexico provided a particular environment in which a new cuisine was developed, and persists to this day. The Spanish colonists brought with them both food traditions from Europe, and from Mexico, where they had been inhabitants for generations. In New Mexico, the food...
New Starch Grain Results and a Synthetic Approach to Foodways at Quilcapampa La Antigua (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Wari and the Far Peruvian South Coast: Final Results of Excavations in Quilcapampa" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The mundane and commensal foodways of Wari and Wari-influenced peoples is a burgeoning area of interest that has the potential to illuminate various aspects of Wari identity. The Middle Horizon period was a particularly turbulent time in terms of identity politics. The establishment of Wari satellite...
Niche Construction and Common Pool Resource Management in Marginal Environments: A Diachronic Approach (WGF - Dissertation Fieldwork Grant) (2018)
This resource is an application for the Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Anthropologists have long been concerned with the immense variety of collective institutions developed by small-scale societies to foster solidarity, inculcate values, and manage resources. Long-term studies tracking the development and maintenance of such institutions would greatly benefit a range of social science disciplines, but are unfortunately rare. To this end, the proposed project...
Niche Construction of Coastal Farming: Archaeobotanical Approach at the Gungokri Site (150 BCE–400 CE) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Social and Environmental Interactions on Coasts and Islands in Korea" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines niche construction and traditional ecological knowledge that was sustained over 550 years along the southern coast in Korea with an example from the Gungokri site. Traditional subsistence method along the coast and islands in Korea was based on a combination of farming and fishery, and we found this...
The Nitrogen Challenge at Çatalhöyük (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Challenges and Future Directions in Plant Stable Isotope Analysis in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic values of archaeobotanical remains from the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük have presented us with a series of challenges for interpreting ancient crop management systems in a complex environment. An exceptionally wide range of δ15N values (0 to 18‰) obtained...
No Fire without Wood? Some Reflections on Late Pleistocene Pyrotechnology in Northern Tundra Environments (East Siberia, Interior Alaska) (2018)
The use of alternate fuels such as grasses, bones or dung has often been interpreted as a typical response of Late Pleistocene (LP) hunter-gatherers to harsh environments, in which woody resources are scarce. In the context of early human dispersal from south-east Siberia into the Americas, the question of prehistoric migration and settlement is closely linked to the one of fuel availability, fire being considered, to the same extent as food, a vital element for survival. However, data regarding...
Non-Pollen Palynomorphs Reveal Environmental Fluctuations in the Terminal Pleistocene Southeastern United States (2018)
Paleobotanists and palynologists must be able to identify various types of plant remains from archaeological sites. Because of the difficulty of becoming familiar with the vast array of microfossils found in a typical pollen sample, non-pollen palynomorphs (such as fungal spores) are often overlooked in traditional palynological analyses. However, they can be indicators of various environmental changes such as fluctuations in plant and animal communities, erosion and fire events. This paper...
Not Your Backyard Garden: Terraces in the Shadow of La Milpa’s Temples (2018)
Terrace construction for agriculture was integral to the survival and growth of ancient Maya centers in the Lowland Neotropics. Terraces supplied communities with food for consumption and trade, materials for construction and goods production, and plants of medicinal and ritual significance. Research into ancient Maya agricultural practices has been largely situated in wetlands contexts, known to be sites of extensive landscape modification for agricultural purposes. Nevertheless, terraces are...
The Oaxacan Cuisine at Achiutla during the Early Colonial Period: A Story of Resilience (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Using paleoethnobotany, this paper examines the Mixtecs’ reaction to the arrival of Spanish at Achiutla, located in the Mixteca Alta. Faced with many challenges during the Early Colonial Period (1521–1600 AD), we examine how Mixtecs’ inhabitants of Achiutla negotiated the arrival of new, introduced foods in the region. To do so, we compare the plant...
Of Elderberries and Alder: Collaborations on the Paleoethnobotany of the Pacific Northwest (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2019, construction monitoring of a large, King County-directed levee replacement project identified a diffuse and deeply buried archaeological site on the Green River, south of Seattle, Washington. This poster presents the results of paleoethnobotanical and AMS analyses conducted on plant materials from precontact-era combustion features and pits....
Old Collections and New Approaches: Estimating Mast Resource Use in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Southwest Texas (2018)
Baker Cave is a dry rock shelter with exceptional organic preservation in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas. The site is best known for high floral and faunal diversity in a Paleoindian-age hearth excavated in 1976, the first of three seasons (1976, 1984, 1985) the Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) worked at the site. Only those 1976 excavations have been reported in any detail. This poster summarizes analyses to estimate mast resource use over time at Baker Cave based on...
On Swiddening and Pigs: The Management of Micronesian Agroforests (2016)
Agroforestry, or the growing of tree crops, is a long-standing and key food production practice throughout much of the world. As with all systems of food production, the way that humans manage agroforests has a profound impact on their composition as well as their sustainability. For over 2,000 years, eastern Micronesians have relied largely on tree crop production, vegeculture, and fishing for subsistence. In this study, we focus on late prehistoric manipulation of floral environments on the...
One Settlement, Many Communities . . . (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Developments through Time on the South Coast of Peru: In Memory of Patrick Carmichael" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Research centered in the prehispanic urban settlement of Cerro de Oro, in the Peruvian South Coast, is showing a wide variety of cooking techniques, disposal arrangements, and even culinary preferences that seem to reflect possible different social groupings within the settlement. This paper will...
One Tamale, Four Digestions (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Thinking about Eating: Theorizing Foodways in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Drawing from long-established fields in anthropology (structuralist, semiotic, identity-oriented, subsistence-focused, human ecological, and many others), food scholars have actively developed hybrid perspectives and novel pursuits. Here, I focus on four: modeling foodways linguistically, theorizing gastropolitik, situating the...
Oneota Cuisine: Tradition, Identity, and Community (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Food is a persistent symbol of identity, signaling both membership and distinction within communities at multiple scales. A combination of macrobotanical, zooarchaeological, isotopic, and ceramic data are used to make inferences about Oneota culinary practices. This paper examines the way that cuisines connected and divided members of Late Precontact...
Oneota Subsistence Patterns: Wild Versus Domesticated (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The late pre-contact Oneota populations of Southwestern Wisconsin practiced a mixed economy of wild resources, in addition to a full suite of domesticated corn, beans, and squash. Analysis of floral remains from the sites prior to European contact, as well as those at the time of contact will examine the impact of external stressor on the use of wild...
An Overview of the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project Soil Testing and Methodologies (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper aims at emphasizing the importance of soil science practice to archaeology thus adding a scientific analytical nature to the cultural nature of archaeology. This report explores this field application of pH and NPK testing in the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project area located in northwestern Belize. These types of testing are of...